Now, how about some answers, Mr Advani?

Ayaz Memon
Saturday, August 22, 2009 23:41 IST

By all accounts, Jaswant Singh's new book is a well-researched, reasonably well-written treatise on Partition, and the references to Jinnah and Sardar Patel, while pointed, are innocuous and hardly worth the brouhaha. Likewise, the furore over Advani's reference to Jinnah a few years back were not laudatory as was made out.
If anything, both Jaswant Singh and Advani in their different ways have indicated that there were several, not just one villain of Partition.
How a consonance of views between two of the most senior functionaries of the BJP could lead to so much confoundment and such a dramatic split would have even been worth a parody were the inner-party functioning -- as Jaswant Singh continues to binge on spilling the beans -- was not so sordid.
Clearly, issues that have little to do with Jinnah, Patel and Partition have led to Singh's sacking. Suddenly you discover that the BJP is not a party with a difference, as has been tom-tommed for a couple of decades now, but in fact is riddled with as many shenanigans by top leaders, as much power-play and has as much dirty linen in the closet as the Congress.
I have not been an admirer of Jaswant Singh the politician (though for him to write a tome on such a complex issue with so much research at this age has raised him a few notches in my esteem otherwise) because he has always seemed out of sync with the BJP and has yet chosen to stay on for 30 years with only a whimper of protest once in a while.
Anglicised not just in his accent but also his worldview, he was (as it emerges more graphically now) clearly a misfit in the party. His haughty, almost feudal approach is now part of Indian political lore. His irreverence for established norms was evident in his passion for bhang would have embarrassed the ultra-conservative kooks and nuts in the BJP who wanted to inflict their own way of life on this country.
Jaswant Singh came from a non-RSS background and -- as he has admits now --- was an unwilling participant in the Hindutva agenda. He projects himself -- like Atal Behari Vajpayee -- as the 'liberal' voice within the BJP. But the question which Vajpayee eluded all the while must also be asked of Jaswant Singh: What compelled him to play ball with the Hindutva line except the lust for power?
It must be borne in mind that only side of the story has been heard yet -- that from a man who is hurt, angry and perhaps vengeful. But Singh has raised some searing queries for LK Advani. Was he in the know about the Kandahar episode where a terrorist was given safe passage out of India, and did he overrule Prime Minister Vajpayee's serious compunctions on the Gujarat riots? Did he stop him from sacking Narendra Modi and/or resigning himself too?
Considering the heavy price paid for these two events, in terms of loss of human life and disruption of the secular fabric, the country demands answers from Mr Advani.

"Ultra-conservative kooks and nuts" - Dear Ayaz Memon, such folks are not the sole monopoly of the BJP, as you seem to make it out. In fact, "hard core Hindus" of these days are informed by a radical streak made popular by Swami Vivekananda. Ultra-conservatism is today more identified with Islam. So a larger number of kooks and nuts are likely to be found in the Muslim League - but then it is not a party of consequence in India today, except in the state of Kerala.

http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/column_now-how-about-some-answers-mr-advani_1284621